Too much overlap in an otherwise competitive segment. Guess the Ex-Explorer owners skipped the Taurus-X altogether. However, the marketing for this car has been non-existent.

they really need to just make a conventional Taurus station wagon.

I’m crying……. on the inside.
DrFill

I’d pretty much say this announcement will have killed it off by April 2008.

All I WANT TO SAY IS…….Ha Ha Ha Ha Mark Fields! Your plan went down the ****ER!!! juts like your 80’s Mullet. So SUCK IT! MARK SUCK IT HARD. Let see in a year when you have to change/kill that ugly ass Flex because it’s going to be a dud too! Did I mention SUCK IT! MARK SUCK IT HARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have a brilliant idea!
Ford, why don’t you kill Ford altogether and start a new company? Just be sure when hiring the new car designers that they will actually build cars that people want to buy!!!
What a wonderful concept, don’t you think, Ford?

This isn’t exactly surprising news.. the Explorer America concept pretty much established that the next Explorer will be built on a car-based platform shared with the next Taurus.. so it effectively takes the place of the Taurus X. But with the smaller 5-passenger Edge and larger 7-passenger Flex already in place, even the Explorer itself may prove redundant.

Bold move indeed……hahaha

When it comes to models that only last a few years (regardless of the manufacturer) you wonder if they did any research. You know, to see if the model actually fits in your lineup, and if people might actually want it.

The Taurus X (retarded name by the way) is a crossover-SUV, right?

technically, an Audi Q7, BMW X5, Mercedes ML, Porsche Cayenne and VW Touareg are Crossovers, too, based more on cars than trucks anyway.

Why doesn’t anybody else get the proportions as nice? Good design needn’t cost a lot..

It’s probably the small wheels and the front-wheel drive base pulling the cab closer to the front and shortening the bonnet.. But still..

zoomzoomr,

If the Explorer America is any indication The EDGE could be the next one to go. The Explorer is a stronger name and the vehicle will be larger with a more robust set of capabilities.

The Flex is a different story and I have no idea what is up with that. It should serve LINCOLN well as the MKT.

As ever, FORD only makes news when something goes wrong. Don’t these guys know good news sells more vehicles than bad news.

A Ford plan turning to crap?
The hell you say!
DrFill

Of course! Nobody wants a stupid station wagon. Cross-overs FTW.

I agree with 04 Focus, they should have just come out with an actual Ford Taurus wagon. However it was probably a lot more affordable for Ford to obviously just re-name the Freestyle the Taurus wagon. Aren’t they built off the same platform anyways? Well the Taurus is getting a total re-design shortly so I say Ford should just keep this around until the Flex and new Taurus comes out. The Flex is better then the Taurus X. I see the engineering Flex’s driving around Dearborn all the time so to me it’s nothing new. I’ve also seen recently the MKS, and even a Mondeo and Falcon driving between factilities.

Blakkar,

I’m not so sure the Edge is going anywhere. A few articles ago, LLN reported that the Edge sold almost as many units as all the Lambdas from GM (Outlook, Acadia, etc) combined. If I recall, close to 130,000 units. That, the pickups, and the Mustang are the only models keeping them from folding altogether.

I Recall that too. But FORD has pulled more boners than I care to remember in the last decade.
I like the EDGE, but the specter of bad decisions will loom large over FORD until they start making believers out of us again.

Frankly I would want FORD to spend as much time on cars as they are on Trucks, SUVs and CUVs

I figured it out, its being replaced by a Mustang crossover, the Mustadition XL

Wow! Holy Shnikes! Someone not re-uping on a crossover/suv/milf-wagon. I’m am truly f*cking impressed. And to think the brainstorm to ****can a model moving slower than snail piss came from Ford.

By the way, Ford. Remember the Taurus SHO? Either generation? Build a new one of those and we’ll talk.

Funny how Ford kills some model within 3-4 years. On the other hand, we still have the older than the hill Ranger and the Focus with yesteryear platform.

So much for your “too expensive to retool our plants to bring the new Focus over” argument while you wasted money on junk market research on more CUV and SUV! Disgusting!!!

Ford will be just fine. With the new eco engines, and 2 new truck diesels coming by 2010, they will find a way forward. I am bullish on Ford…kind of rooting for the underdog. Mulally and Jim Farley are going to pull it off. Mark Fields is done although.

I thought the Taurus X looked good for a kiddie/home depot hauler. Now the resale value should drop, so I can afford a used one in a couple years.

MercMark,

You want a home depot hauler, buy a used Explorer. Cheaper, more room.

But crappy gas mileage

1c3d0g, I have a “stupid” Station Wagon and it’s capable of hauling just as much stuff as an Acadia. It also handles better and gets better fuel economy.

A crossover is nothing more than a trendy fake SUV based on a car or minivan platform. The BMW X5 is about as much of an SUV as a Honda Civic is. Ford doesn’t need this mommywagon anyhow.

They should have kept the name Freestyle and the Taurus should go back to Five Hundred. Those names are better. This Taurus X is junk, im glad its dying.

Thank Goodness Ford is killing it. Bravo! As it should have never been produced in the first place.
No market for such a vehicle.

It does nothing exceptional. Now if your an oveweight person and need the extra leg and hip room then this vehicle may be right for you. As it provides extra and step in height and room so you may love it.

But with in the know buyers its way too large for starters especially with high Gas prices, and Ugly looks are huge turn offs. And yes mediocre gas mileage is bad news too.
Yes I agree with the early post. Mark Fields does’nt give a hoot about Ford and its employees. And if Ford goes down the tube tommorrow he could care less other than missing his huge salary.

All he cares about is his multimillion dollar contract salary with Ford. If you listen to him talk he’s a BS’er. Mulally take it from whoever. After Fields has fattened up on his salary at Ford replace him with Bill Ford’s consent with a trusted friend at your respected company at Toyota. Those Toyota guys know how to work over there, and if not another person here in the US like Jack Telnack then that is what Ford needs most. No more Blue Bloods, Union Guys who are lazy-er-than-stink, and no more upper crust ivy leage dingle berry that don’t do any work at Ford. Whpeither come out with No product or bad product!

Aston you need to back up one more Never for Ford. Ford should have never come out with a Five-Hundred in the first place. When Ford should have stayed on top as the #1 selling car in America by redesigning the Taurus to beat Honda Accord and Toyota Camry.

I remember my college Professor telling our class constantly which is the logically the best product in the market place Ford Taurus or Honda Accord. As the BEST in CLASS product. And he was right.

But Ford went to sleep and retired the guy that gave them their best selling car since the Model T!

Now you even have lowly GM shaping every one of their cars like that! Yeah and you heard me right GM folk your company likes putting out their say oh its another Jelly bean shaped car. Yeah well now your company is doing it.

We’ll in 2010 we’ll see if the new Super Ford Taurus is indeed Super. I expect that it will be “Super” with Mulally’s leadership at Ford Motor. And along with the rest of the new products then Ford can reign supreme again. However its going to be much more challenging today than back in 1985 when they introduced the Taurus.
We’ll soon have China and India offering products here in the US.

Good riddance.
Ford is dazed and confused. No sense in their name games.
Between a rock and a hard place. Good product overseas doesnt work here because of weak dollar and reputation that does not support the price premium of better Euro models.
Sounds obvious but, rebadge every Mazda as a Ford.

I would just give it to Mercury (if you want to keep Mercury alive).
Minimal development costs and you save the Ford brand from another lackluster product

“Sounds obvious but, rebadge every Mazda as a Ford.”

lol, damn right!

Why does everyone think this was a failure? The Freestyle sold 77,000 copies in its first year and 59,000 in the second. As big fluffy crossovers go, that ain’t bad.

And who says they’re killing it? More like wasting millions more dollars to re-bastardize it A THIRD TIME with another ugly face and another lame name: Ford Flex. How dumb is that?

Also, has anyoned notice how Ford stole Volvo’s platform to create a bunch of good stuff (like the Freestyle), while in return using the Focus platform to spread crap all throughout Sweden?

Heart64, I could see the Taurus being compaired to the accord in 1986 maybe, it’s definitely been a long time. Then you call GM lowly, I don’t know about that. They’re really the only one of the detroit 3 with a pulse right now… and what do you mean about GM designing everyone of their cars like a jellybean?

Wow, I didn’t even know that thing was out yet. Guess that’s how bad it was.

“Sounds obvious but, rebadge every Mazda as a Ford.”

NOOO!!! Don’t drag Mazda down with you. Let it stand on its feet again!

Lame design…questionable CVT transmission.

Introduced on TV by a short bald man.

Plastastic interior….all hard by the way.

Nobody buys our vehicle at a time when the Crossover is all the rage.

FORD is Doomed…Doomed…Doomed

I want you to Get real Get real. First let me answer 3 or 4 different folks responses to the Freestyle and its platform and I’ll get to you last “Get Real ” capese.

VLane I would have almost 100% agreed with you on the Ford Flex as lame and stupid as an upcoming vehicle.
To me I don’t care for it.

However lets look at the bigger picture. Where Ford is going and where Ford is positioning the Flex. Once again, to me the Ford Flex to me its nothing special to look at. however. It does give Ford a product that has a certain Rustic appeal with the indented sides of the woody and cuteness from an american point of view.

The Ford Flex could be equated in not the totally same way (dissimilar) to the boxy yet very versatile, and highly economical, great quality on the Honda Element.
The Flex has to be an exceptional in terms of overall value economically, appeal, and everything internally in order to make it. Plus I will add the major ingredient in a minute.

To me lowest operating cost is what I am after. So MPG or range of an electric could make or break car companies in the not too distant future.

It has that Japanese functional appeal on a smaller scale. Toyota tried to copy the cuteness of the element and failed. It was completely gross like the RAV4.

What Ford is doing is the Key to bringing home not only Ford people but everyone else.
They had 5 of the Top selling name plates in America from the mid-1990’s right to the year 2001. Then had gone to sleep in the design department then wasted all that hard earned cash on crap like scooping up redundant car businesses like Jag/LandRover/AstonMartin/Volvo, and Mazada. Their doing away with that ok.

Did’nt belong do any of those things-total waste of time and assets and Ford got behind because the Ford kids were the ones behind it-Duh! Homer Simpson how dumb can you be, but GM started following suit by scooping up car companies as well like: SAAB, AM General’s Hummer,etc so GM is not doing everything right- more on that later.
Vlane one last point. The Focus platform was the best selling compact in the world as well. Its a great platform nothing for Ford to be ashame about -except redesigning it when their suppose to!!! Platform sharing is kind of a necessary evil today to cut cost.

Now hateful as for the Jellybean thing-like Ronald Reagan- that was propaganda that GM folks said whenever they saw a Taurus on the road since its inception- I heard it a million times. All the while GM got its butt handed to them in the market place.

I call GM lowly because they have a mass amount of idiots who like to brag endlessly about their GM brand name as better. I have one answer for them. No your not!! haha. and to that end I don’t care for General Maird. Hey my father had plenty of GM vehicles while I grew up and every single one of those GM vehicles was a junk pile on wheels. They did’nt last. So I can talk.
Buick, Chevy, Oldsmobile,and Pontiac do those names ring a bell those are the one he had. Oh and did I mention Oldsmobile is out of business! I think Buick should have gotten the ax as well if not more so.

and to Sharpie- Mazada is doing alot of things right with product design-their not as good at value as Toyota or Honda but yes Mazada does alot of things right. A page Ford could learn from.

Get Real one last thing. I mentioned the major ingredient. And that is Ford’s product line must be right with the best product line out their to win.

Big things from Ford by 2010.
1.) redesign of F-150 new Hurricane-Boss V8 motor over 425 HP -then redesign in 2012
2.) Redesign of Verve/Fiesta/Focus for best in class SubCompact car 2009
3.) Redesign of Super Taurus 2010
4.) Redesign of Ford Explorer 2009/2010
5.) Redesigned of Ranger pickup?

Plus redesigns for Edge – very well selling I must say it bested GM’s 3 lambda platform models.

With those 5 reasons with get designs plus the best Mileage or better yet no mileage- totally electric will set Ford’s sales back to the top. Flex could get those with the extra traffic flow and great quality, technology, and functionality.

And one more parting blow to Mr. Hateful. I admit GM’s product offerings are vastly improved. As the lambada platforms are testimony to that fact. However, if GM was doing so well then why did they just post GM Loses Big. 12 Feb 2008 11:35 am. GM has posted the largest loss in automaker history, $38.7 billion for 2007. Now that tells you something!

I could one day go from hating GM and for a number of good reasons to liking them. But they need to stop bashing others and come out with Great product instead of lambasting others unjustifiably. I don’t care for their pugnacious attitude.

Ford wake up and start kicking ass again.

The nice part of it all. Is that the Japanese and German will never stop coming out with Great products. And now soon the Ante will go up and the Bar of product Greatness in products will go up even further with the rest of Asia and China and India coming to American shore soon! Look out American dunder heads meaning Ford or GM. I like Chrysler lets see if they think Mediocrity is acceptable too!

I really believe the most economical vehicles will win out.

I think if Automobiles spent as much time investing in the Electric car the way they did the internal combustion engine been around since 1854. So for the last 154 years we’ve spent improving the same principle.

Hey their are a couple of electrical engineers alone in California that have produced the Tesla Roadster (its Electric) but it competes with even the most Exotic Sports cars on the market in the 0-60 time range.

Image what Stephen Hawking would say when it comes to the amount of R&D that one of the automobile companies could put into R&D to make a much more improve Electic Motor, capacitor, and batteries. We don’t know where the performance boundary is capable of going!?

ANd if these engineers can make an Electic do 0-60 in 4.4 second. How much more improved in acceleration could we go!? This is very interesting stuff. And why has’nt the automobile companies envisioned that.

I believe they have been in cahoots with the Oil industry but demand and technology advancements will win out here. I envision ordinary vehicles in the not to distant future totally electric that can do 0-60 faster than the fastest super car we have today.

Imagine a Ford Edge hitting 0-60 like a fighter in 0-60 in .5 seconds!!!! And blowing away a Ferrarri Testarossa! Now hey that would wake you up in the morning. Poor Ferrarri would’nt know what hit him.

Why is Ford not doing well……… ???

Oh yeah…THEY HAVE NO SALES, people don’t want their cars!!!

Reality bites your butt hard doesn’t it.

^^^Oh, and I have a Grand Marquis I like very much, ride and power and a unibody crushing full-frame without being a gas wasting communter SUV or truck.

I’m honestly surprised this vehicle lasted as long as it did. Taurus X? I have NEVER even seen one on the road.

What was FoMoCo thinking releasing this bland, unattractive vehicle anyway? It was always back of the pack as far as ’segment’, and was doomed to stay there. Mediocre doesn’t even begin to decribe this vehicle, good riddance.

Hey Brokeback Mountain-Smalldick640nano-m bite us and Ford alike. You only wish Ford would go away. Their fate is totally in their hands. But If Ford does what it claims its gonna do by 2009/2010 with its future product line. Then you might as well read em and weep; then rest assured that Ford will be On the Road to Domination once more not only in vehicle sales but total Revenue. And hopefully they learned the mistakes from the past and begin to venture into new technologies once they poke through the clouds! Sales wise.

But what I’ve come to learn as many have from witnessing the most recent Autoshows in Detroit/New York/LAX/Chicago is what Mulally CEO of Ford has in store that should put GM in their place ok. So hold that thought and apply it to GM. Their the ones that just got off the LARGEST LOSS of ANY AUTOMAKER in HISTORY AT ALMOST 40 BILLION DOLLARS. So smoke on that one for awhile why don’t ya. It ain’t gettin a whole lot better for GM either.

And Get Real – IF Ford has no sales what does that make GM when it took three GM divisions to equal one Ford model in total sales. Were talking about the Ford Edge vs Outlook, Acadia, and Enclave. Could it be that none of these brands are known for making revolutionary vehicles and that Ford is. Hmmmm let me think. Ahh I see No Sales either but far worse than Ford haha. So what’s your point you have none I see.

Fusion and Mustang are selling well too ok. So it looks like their are plenty of folks not listening to you!

3-Mini-Me’s fighting it out GM..Ford..Chrysler

While Dr. Evil’s Honda and Toyota take over the world.

Where is Austin Powers ??????

I test-drove a Freestyle. Seemed a great car, but it wasn’t worth the $34K they wanted. The few other parents Iknow who own them,likethem.

04focus: “they really need to just make a conventional Taurus station wagon.” Yep.

richt: I bet Mark Fields can spell “****ter.”

zoomzoomr: There would be a risk of a car-based becoming redundant, but if its big enough…

El Aleman: yes,” Taurus X” is a retarded name

johnnycanuck: Yeah, where IS the new SHO?

Heart64: Lot of “reviosionist history” nuts want to forget how good the Taurus was. Problem was, CamCord kept getting fresher,and the Taurus — while the better car — just kept getting “tweaks.”
Now, the word “amount” doesn’t apply to things you can count. AMOUNT of sugar, NUMBER of idiots.

“I’m on my third GM vehicles, largely because the first two went a combined 310,000 miles. Wrecked one, traded in the second.
“I think Buick should have gotten the ax as well.”
Well, Buick Can get the axe now, but i don’t see how that would make sense.

I think the edge costs less than the Lambdas.

GM’s $38.7 billion loss was accounting CYA.
“They need to stop bashing others and come out with Great product …” WAKE UP!

I like to play “Master of Puppets” on an explorer, but I like to play the solos on a Flying V. The classical “Bridge” part is a good time to make the switch,but after the solos, it goes right back into the main riff.
What to do?
I have been just finishing the tune with the Flying V.

JackJimmy boy have no idea what your talking about? Flying V? Your out there like some space cadet with that one. What on earth does Flying V have to do with anything in the automotive world or what is being discussed here? Or is this some kind of ideosyncratic message your trying to divulge to us?! Oh well. I can’t figure it out.

Secondly, I am not backing off the bashing part that GM thinks it has a right to do. GM bashes its the competition consistently with a undeserved snobbery that is unjustified. Like EF Hutton they need to EARN IT first!
In Luxury Automotive words their are only two cars that deserve that right and its either a Lexus or Mercedes- Benz Automobile Not a lowly Cadillac.

Sure if you want me to mention the new CTS from Cadillac so-called car of the year(many of those have been recalled later on) it was ugly-as-sin for years car until it aquired a more Taurusik type shape- that flows front to back- except it still has one flaw it has a butt ugly front end. No question about it. It has Better Haunches ok.

Get Real I Love Honda and Toyota so go blow it out your ass why don’t ya. Deanster I don’t know where you get off coming into this post, but your obviously another weirdo. So stick it in your left ear baby!

But Get real if their are two american companies that deserve some engineering credit it could would Chrysler and Ford ok. They don’t sit there and bragg to everyone how great they are and force heresy into culture-through GM owners that either competing brand sucks because they have had the “Lion share of the market” And I quote That would be the case in years past!

When I was a kid GM had almost 50% of the market today it hovers precariously just above 20% of the market and India and China are not even here yet whoa. Look Out! Don’t worry all of you high school sophmoric punks that think GM is so great won’t think its so when its slips below 10% market share and then eventually goes out of business altogether!

GM’s Lutz is a Putz. He believes in the old school along with no pollution to our environment what an Idiot.

Let me know when Lutz can wipe his straight and tie his own shoes in the morning lol

Heart64: get over it.
Ford says it’s beeter, GM says it’s better. I root for the New York Yankees, Notre Dame Fighting Irish,Pewter Pirates, FC Bayern München, etc. I do not take pride in GM’s market share. I just calls ‘em as I sees ‘em.

And,I know the difference between “your” and “you’re.”

I was bashing Ford ok, but jimturkeyjerky after visiting Buick’s website I almost kind of regret what I said about em. Their down to just three models no more LeSabre???? What has the world come to with no Buhog LeSabre!?
I actually feel sorry for Buick. I really don’t want to see em go out of business but you know- everyone knows its a chevy motor in a Buick, now defunct olds, pontiac, and even Cadillac, and Hummer too. Saturn may actually have their own motors?! I don’t know. The execs have got to learn the buying public isn
t stupid they know the difference between apple butter and baby sh*t ok

Ford has to pull their heads out of thier arses!

Build a Taurus Wagon, just as Audi and Volvo did to compliment the sedans and make it 2wd and Awd. The Freestyle was built to compete w.the xc70, only it came to market too late and was a very ugly/poor design as well as badly marketed.

if not a wagon, then go the crossover route like infinity EX/FX series or do all the above.

Each will sell and sell well IF built well, looks well, is functional and marketed well.

Look what happened when the focus wagon and hatchback got pulled and then Mazda came out with the 3wagon…they own the market now.

Just put whoever designed the Taurus in charge of your design team and let it run